


You Say You Tried

by hypatia



Series: The Incredibly True Adventures of 2 Hackers in Love [13]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies), Leverage
Genre: Leaving Home, M/M, Nostalgia, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:13:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26655691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypatia/pseuds/hypatia
Summary: Q leaves MI6.-“I’m going to miss London. I’ve never wanted to live anywhere else.”“You won’t be able to return?" asked Sophie. "Hardison didn’t give me many details.”“No, I won’t,” said Will. “You’re still a British citizen?”“I am.”“Did he mention you’re committing treason by helping me?”“He did. Though not exactly how,” she smiled slyly. “It mightn’t be the first time.”
Relationships: Alec Hardison/Q (James Bond)
Series: The Incredibly True Adventures of 2 Hackers in Love [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1568371
Comments: 14
Kudos: 62





	You Say You Tried

**Author's Note:**

> I promised an early guest who commented on this series that Sophie would make an appearance. 
> 
> NB, not sure if you're still reading, but this is for you. I hope you enjoy.

Sophie rolled down the passenger-side window when she saw the man Hardison had asked her to watch for. She was stopped at a traffic light a couple of blocks from MI6 headquarters courtesy of Hardison’s subtle manipulation of traffic patterns.

He climbed into the car and set the messenger bag he’d carried on the floor in front of him. “Sophie, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said in the most expensive accent she’d heard in a long time.

“Will,” she said with a smile, “the pleasure is all mine. Welcome to your getaway car.”

He gave her a sharp smile, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. She thought he looked, just for a moment, young and lost. The light changed and she drove forward. “Something?” she asked.

“Hmm? Oh, it’s fine.”

She glanced over but simply kept driving. They came to another traffic light and stopped once more.

“It’s just—I don’t hear my name often. At work everyone addresses me by my title. I use pseudonyms online and for my hobbies. I was trying to remember the last time someone beside Alec called me Will.”

She nodded. Her phone rang and she looked at it then held out the phone. “This is for you,” she said.

He took the phone, which showed the call came from a blocked number, and answered it. “Hello Alec,” he said.

“Hey Will. All clear so far. Traffic is lighter than I expected, so you even have some cushion.”

“Enough for a brief detour?”

“One last drive through the park?” asked Alec.

“I’d like that, yes.”

“Sure. I’ll call back if you need to change course.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem, I’ve got you.”

“Miss you,” Will said, softer.

“I miss you too. See you soon.”

“See you soon,” he disconnected and turned to Sophie. “Could you drive by the observatory?”

“Greenwich? If you like,” she said.

“Thank you,” said Will. He turned his head and watched out his window as they made their way.

“Special place?” Sophie asked.

Will nodded. “Alec and I visited every chance we got. Apparently, there are Americans that think that Greenwich Observatory is nowhere near London instead of nearly on the Thames.”

“I think it’s that their country is so big. They assume everything is far away from everything else.”

“Quite likely.”

Sophie turned into the park around Greenwich observatory and drove toward the center where the museum was located.

Will sighed. “I’m going to miss London. I’ve never wanted to live anywhere else.”

“You won’t be able to return? Hardison didn’t give me many details.”

“No, I won’t,” said Will. “You’re still a British citizen?”

“I am.”

“Did he mention you’re committing treason by helping me?”

“He did. Though not exactly how,” she smiled slyly. “It mightn’t be the first time.”

“What did he tell you?”

Sophie found a parking space near the planetarium and turned to look at Will. “That you needed help. That you’ll have some things to give me that I need to send to him. That I urgently needed to get a set of crutches for you today because an old injury was acting up,” she paused. “And that if we were caught it would be by very dangerous people and I’m to pretend to be your step-aunt who knows nothing about what you do, which I don’t so that at least shouldn’t be a stretch.”

“All of that is true,” he said. He pulled a small packet, the size of a stack of passports, out of his bag. “This is what you’ll send to him.”

She took the packet from him and tucked it into her purse. “He also said that he’s known you for a long time.”

He nodded. “Over twenty years.”

“I’m surprised he never mentioned you.”

“I’m not. It’s what we had to do to protect each other.”

“From whom?”

“The very dangerous people I worked with and the occasionally very dangerous people he hacked.” He looked out his window. “Can you give me a moment?”

“Of course.”

He looked at the buildings and park where he’d walked countless times. Not far from where they’d parked, but around a corner, was the Prime Meridian where, during Alec’s first visit, he and Alec had gotten into a friendly wrestling match over who should stand on which side. They’d ended up falling over in a heap laughing while other tourists looked at them sidelong or in open disapproval, whether of their teenaged antics or their inevitable kissing Will had never been certain and had not cared.

On the other side of the road was a large open space where they’d sat to rest on his first outing with crutches after his injury and later picnicked days before he officially joined MI6. When they drove out, they would pass a tree he and Alec had sheltered under once when a sudden rain shower had caught them by surprise. Alec had leaned against the trunk and smiled an irresistible smile and Will had pressed against him and they’d kissed until the rain stopped.

They’d discussed, but never actually followed through on, a harebrained scheme to break into the planetarium some night and watch the show, just them and the stars.

He hadn’t visited often since he’d become quartermaster. There’d been security concerns and he hated the production that involved.

“All right,” he said, “we should go. We have a long trip yet.”

“We do. Hardison found a secure spot for us to have supper in France and then we’ll drive through to Rotterdam. He booked rooms for us at a hotel not far from the port. He said you’ll like it, it’s quaint.”

“That would be Alec’s way of warning me they have unreliable Wi-Fi,” said Will dryly.

Their trip across the channel was uneventful. Sophie drove them to a town not far from the Belgian border and they stopped for supper at the tiny bistro Alec had recommended (for its utter lack of security cameras anywhere nearby).

Once they’d been seated, Sophie’s phone buzzed and she glanced at it. “It’s Hardison,” she said. “He thinks you’d like the rabbit.”

He chuckled, expression softening. “He’s right. I was trying to decide between the rabbit and the scallops.”

After they’d ordered, both speaking French, she cocked her head at him. “Your accent is quite good.”

He snorted softly and tried to suppress a smile, “Vous vous attendiez à ce que je parle comme ça peut-être?*” he asked, flattening his accent to something she would call ‘English schoolboy French’.

“Oui, en effet,” she said, with an approving smile. “Can you do others?”

* _French_  
You expected me to sound like this, perhaps?  
I actually did.

“Several, it’s a trick I picked up when I was younger. It entertained my friends; helped me fit in.” He switched to a Dutch accent. “This is what I’ll sound like for my trip to the states.”

“Do you speak anything besides English and French?”

“Russian. Some Afrikaans and Pashto. A few words of some others—enough to politely ask if someone speaks English or French or Russian.”

“That’s an unusual set.”

“I lived with a Russian foster family when I was young, picked up some Afrikaans the same summer Alec did. Learned my Pashto while I was stationed in Afghanistan.”

“You were in Afghanistan? Is that where you were injured?”

“Yes, but I can’t talk about it. Nearly everything I did was classified.”

She nodded understanding and they chatted about inconsequential things until their food arrived.

“You’re in love with Hardison, aren’t you?” she asked as they were finishing their entrees.

He smiled faintly. “Did you deliberately wait until I was on my second glass of wine to ask that?”

She gave a sly grin. “Perhaps.”

“Yes. I love him very much.”

“Does he know that?” asked Sophie cautiously.

Will blinked at her in surprise. “He _really_ didn’t tell you anything about me. I’m rather impressed.”

“Hmm?”

“Parker figured out we’d been together after asking him a single nonsensical question. I’d assumed he was being painfully obvious about it.”

Sophie shook her head.

“Greenwich was special because I brought Alec there on my 16th birthday,” he said, smiling at the memory. “We’d kissed for the first time the night before. It all felt a bit magical; we barely let go of each other’s hands all day.”

“That’s very sweet,” said Sophie.

Will shrugged, slightly embarrassed. “We called each other our ‘partner in crime’. We had a long distance relationship, saw each other a few times a year, until I was injured in 2005. Then he moved to London for six months. When I joined—my previous employer—he returned to the states.”

“And you never spoke of each other?”

“More or less.”

“You know about Parker and Eliot?”

“Yes, of course. I was glad he found them and you and Nate. It was good for him. He was getting cynical—in a completely different way than I did.”

“You kept in touch?”

“We had a secure channel. We limited our use so that it would _stay_ secure. But I knew the essentials.”

Sophie paid for their meal and they made their way back to the car.

“Do you do the same type of work Alec does?”

“There’s some overlap.”

“Will you tell me about ‘partners in crime’?”

“I suppose that’s one way to pass the time. Shall we start with fox hunting or diamond mines?”

They traded stories of cons and swindles until they reached Rotterdam near midnight. It was late enough and they had to get up early enough that Will couldn’t bring himself to care about the state of the Wi-Fi. He bade Sophie good night and hoped he’d manage some sleep.

After a hasty breakfast, Sophie drove Will to the port. The sun was just rising. “I’ll look forward to hearing about the jobs you pull with Hardison and the others. Would you give them my love?”

“I’ll tell them. But I recently finished the longest con of my life and I suspect I will want a break.”

“The very dangerous people?”

“Yes.”

“How long?”

“Nearly three years.”

“And that ended?”

“About fifteen minutes before you picked me up or later this morning depending on your point of view.”

She glanced over. “Three years is a long time to run a con Will.”

“It is.”

“Alone?” she pulled into the port and began looking for a parking spot.

“Yes.”

“Big payoff?” she asked.

“At a minimum, I saved a life,” said Will. “Further results yet to be determined.”

“That’s something few people get to say,” said Sophie. “And what has it cost you?”

“Also, yet to be determined. If this goes poorly, and the dangerous people Alec mentioned come after me, I probably won’t survive and I could get a lot of people killed.”

Sophie parked the car and glanced at Will. “That wasn’t what I asked,” she said gently. “What have the last three years cost you?”

Will turned to face her. “Nothing I wasn’t willing to pay.”

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from the song _Getaway_ by Earth, Wind, and Fire. The lyrics are unexpectedly appropriate to Will's story.
> 
> I'll admit I'm one of the Americans who didn't realize where Greenwich Observatory was. I was looking at a map of London to see if there was somewhere Will would want to drive by as they left and it seemed the perfect choice. I'd thought Greenwich Observatory was at least on the outskirts of the city or perhaps farther.
> 
> Edited 12/28/2020 to improve French language bit.


End file.
